Sidewalk save

Rural Carrier Cheylyn Kahaulelio-Virelas was recently delivering mail in a Windsor, CA, neighborhood when she spotted an older customer who had fallen out of a wheelchair on a sidewalk.

The woman had struck her head, and her husband, who had been pushing the wheelchair, was struggling to lift her.

Kahaulelio-Vireleas and one of the couple’s neighbors rushed to their aid and got the woman back into her wheelchair, but her husband declined the Postal Service employee’s offer to call 911.

Concerned about the woman’s head wound, Kahaulelio-Vireleas located an emergency room physician who lived nearby, and he rendered first aid before the husband drove his wife to a hospital.

“We’re more than just carriers,” Kahaulelio-Vireleas later told The Press Democrat. “We’re counselors and the eyes and ears of the communities we serve.”

The injured customer is recovering from the incident.


Employees featured in “Heroes’ Corner” also receive letters of commendation through the Postmaster General Heroes’ Program. The nomination form is available on Blue.